replacing hard disks on vgn-ar61s

[daniel.bhatoa]

Hi,   I have a vgn-ar61s laptop with windows Vista, id like to install Windows 7.   The laptop comes with 2 hard disks in a raid 0 config ( why Sony didn't just use a faster SATA disk I don't know...)  Anyway, I'd like to keep all of my original data. To do this, would it just be a case of buying two hard disks and swapping the drives out ?   I haven't much experience with raid. In the case of an emergency I'd like the ability to put the old hard disks back in. Would I be right in thinking I can simply replace the disks with two new ones for a fresh install and if I need to, simply put the old ones back?    Or would removing and adding disks break the raid and mean all my data is lost?  Thx

Message was edited by: daniel.bhatoa

Message was edited by: daniel.bhatoa

[Blencogo]

Hi Daniel,

You have several options here: -

1. The best option is to make a 'mirror' of your hard discs.  With this mirror you can put everything back onto two new drives exactly as it was including passwords, data, settings, programs, Windows Updates, Vaio Updates etc.  You will need an external harddrive to put this mirror on and you can add an incremental backup at any time to update the mirror.  Once you have put the mirror back onto the new drives then use an UPDATE IN PLACE version of Windows 7.  Using an UPDATE version is the only way you will keep the preinstalled software that came with your Vaio like WinDVD BD, Photoshop, Roxio etc.  To do this you will need to buy Acronis True Image 2011 and this will be useful to keep your new Windows 7 installation backed up.

2. If you don't want the expense of an external HDD and new software, you could swap out the discs and use your recovery discs to reinstall the original Vista installation.  Again you then need an UPGRADE version of Windows 7.  If you do it this way you will have to back up all your data and reinstsall it along with any additional software you have installed since new.  You should be able to reinsert the old drives if you need them as long as you keep the RAID 0 configuration.

3. You could do a clean install of Windows 7 onto the new discs using a FULL version of Windows 7.  You will then lose all preinstalled software and have to buy replacements.  You can download Drivers and Utilities from the Vaio website for your model and again you will have to reinstall data, software etc.  Some people prefer this 'Clean Start' to an upgrade.

4. You also have the option of turning off RAID and just use one or two new drives as normal disc drives.

Good Luck

[daniel.bhatoa]

Hi Blen,

My Vista installation is flawed at the moment, random bugs, so I'd really need to go for a fresh install with a newly purchased hard disk.

Just to confirm, I was planning on the following after a full backup:

1. Make a note of raid settings

2. Pull out both hard disks

3. delete raid

4.install a single hard disk in non raid and install windows 7

In the event that I've missed something in my backup and I need to get data off the old hard disks, would it just be a case of:

1. remvoe current hard drive

2. re-create raid setup

3. pop both disks in

4.Boot into windows and grab my data off

?

Thanks

Dan

[Blencogo]

That's fine Dan.

You will need to turn RAID off.  To do this you need to go into the BIOS and make the RAID configuration visible when you boot:

When the laptop boots up (and shows the first VAIO logo) press F2 to enter the BIOS.
On the tab "Advanced" , you will see a line "RAID configuration" with an  option "HIDE". Highlight that and press enter to change it to "SHOW".

Go to "EXIT" and save your changes.

The computer will reboot, and right after the VAIO logo screen, it will  show the RAID configuration on screen for a very short period of time. Be ready to  insert CONTROL+I (or other indicated command) to enter the RAID  configuration.

On the menu, you will see some options and your hard drives. Select the  option "Remove RAID configuration" and on the next screen select both  disks by pressing SPACE and then ENTER.

After you finish that, you will see a black screen saying "No operating  system". At this point, hold the "power" key down for a few seconds  until the computer shuts down. Swap the discs for your new one then restart it and use your Windows 7 Installation Disc to install Windows.

[satbirdhil]

Dear Sir,

Subject: Accessing data, Sony Viao internal hard-disks when the Sony Viao computer no longer works, I have taken it to repair shops who have said it is not worth repairing or attempting to repair

Having read your replies. I wonder if you could help in suggesting a course of action for me. My Sony Viao will not come back on. It has two hard disks wach one is 250 GB SATA. The disks connect to a caddy/metal frame on one side, the other side has a single connector through which the discs are accessed.

I don't know if this type of connection makes them Raid 0, but  I was unaware I had two disks in my machine, I always thought the machine had a single disk of 500GB.

I was able to connect the drive, via a SATA - USB cable, as external drive to my machine. Each disk showed up in device manager on win 7 and win 10 machines, but did not appear in win explorer.

I put the disks back into the Caddy, I couldn't see how to connect my SATA-USB cable to connector, it is smaller than the SATA connector and my cable was not suitable.

I basically wanted to get my data from the hard-disk, I have no reason to believe there is any thing wrong with the disks. Any ideas on how I can use the SATA-USB cable on each of the disks one at a time to access data or advise on what kind of cable I need and what ekse I might need to do to achieve this.

Thank you advance for your help.

Satbir

[Blencogo]

Hi Satbir.

The good news is that both discs appear healthy - the bad news is that if the two discs are written as a RAID 0 array, you can only read them as a pair using a compatible RAID Controller to the one used by your Vaio.

Data is laid down in 'stripes' - something like 125KB to one disc and the next 125KB to the second disc. The discs can only be read as a pair because only half the data is on each disc and they cannot be read individually. This is why they will not show individually in explorer.

You really need a similar RAID Controller setup to read the discs and I can only suggest the following:-

1. Do you know anyone with a similar VGN-AR Vaio into which you could put your discs and copy off the data? EBay may also be an option.
2. You may be able to find a compatible RAID Caddy that takes both discs and can read a RAID Array. Google does find such caddies or NAS enclosures but you need to confirm compatibility.
3. A data recovery software probably also exists that will read RAID - again try Google.
4. Data recovery companies should be able to do what you are asking.

Sorry there is no easy answer.